National Guard Shooter Worked with CIA

Lakanwal’s unit operated in Afghanistan’s southern region — in Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan — out of the former compound of the late Taliban leader Mullah Omar, commonly referred to as "Mullah Omar’s house" and by U.S. forces as "Camp Gecko."

NDS-03 was one of about five paramilitary groups working with the CIA. They were commonly called "Zero Units" due to the numbers following their National Directorate of Security (NDS) or Afghan intelligence service designation.

The Afghan members of the units were highly vetted and trained by the CIA and carried out some of the toughest counterterrorism missions against the Taliban, Al Qaeda and others. They were very trusted and brave, according to those who worked with them.

Lakanwal began working with the CIA around 2011, when he was likely 15 years old, according to the official, who added that the CIA would have kept the identities of those they worked with secret.

The official noted it was common at the time for Afghans to forge their birth certificates to appear 18 or older before applying to work with the U.S. government. Few official records of birth are kept in Afghanistan, and it was often difficult to know anyone's exact age, the official added.

The senior official added that the U.S. government had been doing continuous, annual vetting since the Afghans’ arrival in the U.S., especially in the wake of the foiled terror plot in Oklahoma before last year’s election, which involved an Afghan evacuee.